Mowing machine for grass and other crops



Mar. 3. 1925.

I 1,528,553 G. F. KENNEDYET AL MOWING MACHINE FOR GRASS AND OTHER CROPS 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 24, 1920 I [In (0751's -//ML 117%. flu a Mgir. 3. 1925.

G. F. KENNEDYv ET AL MOW-ING MACHINE FOR GRASS AND OTHER CROPS I 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 24, 1920 [/7 yer/Tarts Mar. 3... 1925. v

G. F.. KENNEDY ET AL MOWING MACHINE FOR GRASS AND OTHER CROPS b v Fil ed Aug. 24, 1920 v 4 Sheets-Sheet s a. F.' KENNEDY ET L MOWING'MACHINE FOR GRASS AND OTHER CROPS Filed Au 24. 1920 4 Sheets-Sheet "4 flinw/pns (ZWMQ Patented Mar. 3, 1925.

UNITED STATES 1,528,553 PATENT OFFICE. 5

GORDON FRANCIS KENNEDY, LONDON, AND HAYDN ARNOLD SANDERS, OF HIGH- BRIDGE, ENGLAND.

MOWING MACHINE FOR GRASS AND OTHER CROPS.

Application filed August 24, 1920. Serial No. 405,679.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GORDON FnANoIs KENNEDY and HAYDN ARNOLD SANDERS, subjects of the King of Great Britain, residing at, respectively, 127 Holland Road, Kensington, London, England, and Huntspill, Highbridge, Somersetshire England. have invented new and useful Improvements in Mowing Machines for Grass and Other Crops, of which the'following is a specification.

This invention relates to machines chiefly intended for cutting grass, and has mainly for its object to provide a machine which is adapted for application to a motor tractor.

A machine constructed accord ng to this invention is designed to be carried upon the front of a motor tractor so that it will be propelled thereby, the said machine comprising a framewhich at its rear part is pivotally connected to the chassis or frame of the tractor, whilst at the front part it carries a finger-bar n which the knife or sickle reciprocates. The crank by meansof which the sickle is reciprocated', preferably through the medium oflevers or rods. is carried in bearings upon the frame and is designed to be driven from the engine of the tractor or direct from the tractor-road wheel or other shafting through the medium of gearing and un'versal or like joints.

In order that. when the machine is travelling upon undulating ground, the fingers shall be prevented from digging into the soil, we provide, in connectionwith the finger-bar, wheels or skids which will run upon the ground and retain the finger-bar at the required distance therefrom and at the proper angle of inc'dence to the ground. In practice, these wheels or skids can be applied at the ends of the finger-bar. A lever or other device may be provided for lifting or varying the angle of incidence of the tinger-bar when required.

We sometimes arrange in connection with one or both ends of the finger-bar an extension finger-bar which, or each of which, when not required for use, or when the unplement is travelling upon the road. may be turned upto a more or less vertical position. The knife of each bar can be driven from the shaft driv ng the main knife or from an independent shaft or shafts. These extension finger-barsmay be so mounted that J they will slightly overlap the ends of the main finger-bar, when in working position, so as to avoid leaving a strip or strips of grass or other material between the main bar and, the extensions.

The frame of the mower is constructed with a central opening so that as the swath is out and falls backwards on to the fingerbar, it can be directed by means of suitable boards or guides through the frame to lie upon the ground in the space between the wheels of the tractor. The swath cut by the extension bar or bars can be d'rected to the centre of such bar or to one end thereof, as desired.

To enable the invention to be fully understood, we will describe it by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a side View of a mowing machine constructed and arranged according to the invention, t being shown applied to the front of a tractor driven by an internal combustion motor and'which is indicated by dotted lines.

Figure 2 is a plan thereof. 9

Figure 3 is a plan showing one of the skids or shoes and the joint between the main finger-bar and one of the extension finger-bars.

Figure 4 "s a rear view thereof.

Figures 5 and 6 are respectively a sectional side view and a sectional rear view of some of the parts shown in Figures 3 and 4.

Figure 7 is a sectional side view illustrating some of the mechanism for driving the knife of the main finger-bar.

Figures 3 to 7 are drawn to a larger scale than Figures 1 and 2.

The frame of the mower comprises two side bars a, a preferably of wood, which are pivotally connected at one end to the outer ends of the rear axle of the tractor as indicated at Z), b Figure 2. These bars a have also a pivotal connection with the casing enclosing the said rear axle by means of metal bars 0, 0 attached at one end to the said bars a the saidbars a and 0 thus forming bifurcations inwhich the rear or driving wheels of the tractor run. The front ends of the bars a are attached or tied to the front axle of the tractor by cross ties cl, theends of which are connected to the said bars and axle by the spring connections al The bars g are also supported near their front ends by swivel wheels 6, springs e beinga-di antageously interposed between the said bars and wheels.

7' is the main finger-bar arranged below the front, ends, ofith-e side bars a, and supported upon the ground through the. medium of the skids or shoes 9 to which they are attached by way of the plates Or -flanges g forming the bases of the said shoes. The said shoes are provided with vertical flanges 01' dividing boards 9 provided with rear ward extensions g fwhich -are inclinedso as to direct the cut grass. or the. like towards the'eentre of the track cut by the knife carried by the finger bar fr as hereinafter described. The finger-bar, f is connected to the bars a" by two inclined tractor rods or linksjk one end of each of which is pivoted to the upper part of a shoe 9, whilst the other end is'pivoted to. a downward extension 71 on a bar a. The said extensions 2' are of asp ring natnre, as indicated in Figure 1, to en ahle them to yield whenthe lingerb ar [encounters an obstruction, means beingl' provided whereby this yielding more nent will effect the stopping of the motor of. the tractor and thus avoiddamage to the mower. Suitablemeans for this purpose comprise a depe i -ding arm j onone or both bars a, suit-- 7 ablyinsiilated froni the said bars and carryin an electric contact in electrical con- 'nectionbjy the wire with the motorsparkplug circuit j as nd cated in Figure 1,

sothatwhen the finger-bar f n' ets with, and is held against further for rd moi emerit by an rena es; the extensions twill deflected so as toinake contact with;the e .ctr' cfcontact'orcontacts 7' when the spark pings will be short cirenite-d and-the motor stopped, thecnrrent passing from the o cult j by way'ofthe wire 7' arm 7' andcontact y} to the eirtension'iwhence it returns to theucircuit b'y anysuit able connection.

Zcindieates springs which connect the rear ends ofthe shoes 9 to the frame bars (a so as to tend tokeep thehngers on thefingerbar f well in contact with the gronnd and to assist in alteringthe inclination of the sa d fingelsbar, as here nafter described.

Z isfthecrank and Z the connecting rod by means of which the knife or sickle Z carried blvthe finger-bar ,f is reciprocated thesaid crank being keyed to the lower end of a K "ical sliaft'm journalled in bearings'in a ac-ltet m supported on the finger bar as clearly shown in Figures 2 and 7. The rod Z is co'yered a suitable casing vnot shown, attached to the linger-bar One mode of rotating the shaft in to reciprocate the knife from the motor is as follows," that :is to say, from the shaft ,of

ithehs aid motor, which shaft is used for drly n'gmachinery when the tractor 1s staal piilleyds removed and substituted therefor, with which Wheel another bevel wheel 0 loose on ash'aftfflflis:eaiised-to gear, the: said shaft being arranged in hearings in a casing 72 attached to the casing of the motor. The bevel wheel o gis .flql l scted to aclateh part ggwith which a clutch part 9 slidably keyed to the shaft 12 is designed to be engaged by a hand leverH so .as to rotate the shaft 12 which, through the medium of the rod 2-. shaft r s procketgearing r r shaft 1, rod r shaft 1-, and bevel wheelsmK i rotates the shafthm. The joints betwecn the rod 4 andshafts Q and '1" and between the rod 7 and. shafts 1- and 7" are in the-form of n iiire r'sal joints, whilst theconnection be tween the sprocket wheel,'r"' and the shaft 1- is: a sliding connection} to allow for; relative ino eme nt between the finger-bar f and the {fame a when encountering obstructions. s is abracket a-ttache dto the motor casing and carrying the bearings for the shafts 7" and 74.

"To enable the angle of incidence of the iin-genbar r-elatiVelytothe groundtobe aried;hand-levers -t are employed mounted on the bars 6 an-d connected by wires or-the like t to the rear ends of the shoes the said levers working in connection with notched quadrants t so-that the said lovers canbe'lockedinany position to which they ha ebeen' adjiisted, the springs 71: assisting [to lift'the said rear ends.

indicates the extension fingenbars .which are connected to the ends of the finger-bar by hinge joints through the medi m of the shoes 9', these joints being formed by triinnion pinea on brackets 1 cari" ing the said extension bars, engaging corresponding-holes in theshoes g, as shown cl rl'y in Figures 3 to (3. The knives or sickies if: of thee-Xtensionfinger-bars are reeiprocated by rods 0 operated bycranks c on ertical shafts o journalled in bearings in the brackets a the said shaft carrying a bevel-wheel I)" in gear with a bevelwheel o inaXial alignment with the trunnions u". Eachbevelwheel is operated to rotate the lcrank r from the shaft we through the medium of a bevel-wheel w in gear with the bevel wheel r a shaftw a clutch 10 bevel-wheels 00 e0 shaft w and bevel-wheel w in gear with the bevel wheel 22". The rods t are covered by suitable carings, not showm attached to the lingerbars 11-.

The extension finger-bars u are designer to be turned up upon their hinge pins 2/ when not required for use, and for this purpose one of the said pins of each extension has a lever .97 keyed to it, the outer end of whichleve-r is connected by a wire m or the like to a hand-lever working in conjunction with a notched quadrant fin connection with each extension fingerbar a provision is made-for automatically Cil operating the clutch 10 to prevent the re" ciprocation of the knives '2) when the said bars are turned up upon their hinges. This is advantageously elfected by cam slots 3 Figure l in plates attached to the brackets Q1 in which slot pins on one end of rods z sliding in guide brackets 3/ are located, whilst the other ends of the said rods are connected to levers 1 the fulcrum pins of which carry forked levers g in engagement with the sliding parts of the clutches 10 It will thus be seen that, when the extension finger-bars u are turned through a small angle on their hinges, the parts of the clutches 10 will be separated. In the draw ings the mechanism for turning the extension finger-bars M on their hinges will only move them through a small angle just suflicient to disengage the clutches 10 further movement to a vertical position, when travelling upon a road, being effected by hand, means, not shown, being provided for holding them in the said vertical position.

By reference to Figure 2 it will be seen that the adjacent ends of the knives Z and n overlap so as to avoid leaving strips of uncut grass or the like at these points, the dividing-boards 9 being formed with openings g for the passage of the ends of the knife Z m Figure 2 is a projecting casing for the shaft on and connected parts and 9", g are swath boards pivoted at g to the rear ends of the extensions 9? of the dividing boards 9 of the shoes g so as always to bear upon the ground for directing the cut material from the knife Z into a swath between the tractor wheels, notwithstanding alterations of the angle of incidence of the finger-bar The construction of mower hereinbcfore described thus provides a central opening or space so that the swath cut by the finger-bar f is directed so as to lie on the ground between the wheels of the tractor, the swaths cut by the knives a being directed in a similar manner by inclined directing surfaces 11 V on the brackets 20 and directing surfaces,

not shown, at the outer ends of the extension finger-bars such as are used in connection with horse drawn mowers.

It will be understood that the angle of incidence of the extension finger-bars u will be altered by the operation of the handlevers t similarly to the main finger-bar f.

Although the improved machine has been described as having two extension finger'bars and knives one only may be employed.

By the described construction it will be seen that a mowing machine is provided which is capable of cutting a wider track than is possible with the ordinary horsedrawn mower, and that it can cut one, two or three swaths of usual width as required.

Although the mower is herein shown as applied to one form of tractor it is to be understood that by suitable modifications it can be applied to other forms of tractors without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Claims:

1. The combination with a tractor having a motor and front and rear axles, of a mowing attachment comprising a frame, means for attaching said frame to the rear axle of said tractor, a main finger bar and main cutter bar, positioned transversely of and in front of the tractor and connected to said frame, means: for driving said cutter bar from said motor, an extension finger bar, means for hingedly connecting one end of said extension finger bar to one end of the main finger bar, an extension cutter bar supported on said extension finger bar, means for driving said extension cutter bar from the driving mechanism of the main cutter bar, means for moving the extension linger bar upwardly about its hinged con nection with the main finger bar, and means for automatically disconnecting the driving mechanism of said extension cutter bar when the extension finger bar is turned up relatively to the main finger bar.

2. The combination as claimed in claim 1 wherein the means for connecting the finger, bars to the frame permit the finger bars to trail on the ground, and wherein the means for moving the extension finger bar vupwardly about its hinged connection to vary the angle of incidence of the finger bar and knife with respect to the ground comprises a lever and connections secured to said frame and finger bars.

3. The combination as claimed in claim 1 wherein the motor has a spark plug circuit and wherein the means for connecting the finger bars to the frame permits the finger bars to trail on the ground, spring means connected to the finger bars and frame adapted to yield when the finger he '5 meet an obstruction, an arm having an electric contact depending from said frame, and a wire connecting said arm with the spark plug circuit of said motor, said spring means when it yields, being adapted to make a contact with said depending arm for short circuit ing said motor.

GORDON F RANGES KENNEDY. HAYDN ARNOLD SANDERS. 

